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Friday, February 10, 2012

Renato S. Roxas, M.D.

A.G ROMUALDEZ JR., M.D

‘If Filipinos in commerce cannot behave with civility toward each other, one wonders whether the country can ever hope to match foreign competition.’

THE web page of the Nueva Ecija High School Alumni Association lists a certain Renato S. Roxas as one of its top ten donors of 2009. Known as "Rey" to family and friends in Pandi, Bulacan where he grew up and in Cabanatuan where he went to high school, Dr. Roxas was appreciated for his generosity wherever he went during the more than 70 years of life on this planet.

By virtue of his graduation as valedictorian of a public high school, "Ato" Roxas – as he was nicknamed by those he met later in college and in medical school – entered as a scholar and maintained the scholarship throughout his pre-medical years at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. He was very active in extra-curricular activities and became a very popular president of the UP Pre-Med Society.

At the UP College of Medicine, Ato was a top student – maintaining his grades despite a very taxing extracurricular schedule which included being president of the UP Medicine Class of 1965 throughout the five years of their medical course as well involvement in fraternity activities and writing for various school organs including the UP Medics Newsette.

Among his contemporaries in the UP of the early 60s, Ato was best known as the leader of a group of classmates that called themselves "The Saints" – after a popular comic strip character also known as Simon Templar. The group’s headquarters was the "Brown Derby" on Taft Avenue near Herran Street – the establishment made famous by the foot-long hot dog.

In the pre-clinical years of medical school, Ato apparently breezed through the basic medical sciences. He applied himself diligently to laboratory work as well as to theoretical studies. He became known for his skills in dissection and in working with experimental animals. His Physiology group was one of the few that completed the salivary gland experiments on dogs because Ato’s talent enabled him to cannulate (insert a polyethylene tube into) the salivary duct of a dog under anesthesia.

During his clinical years, first as a clerk then an intern, at the Philippine General Hospital, Ato was very much sought by patients who were mostly poor and who seemed to come from all parts of Manila and nearby provinces. His group mates remember him as being always solicitous and extremely generous to his peers and co-workers – but most especially to his poor patients.

Upon graduation in 1965, the new Dr. Renato S. Roxas married his sweetheart from the PGH School of Nursing, Cristina Gutierrez and soon after left for the United States of America. There he landed at the Wayne State University Hospital in Detroit, Michigan and spent the rest of his professional life in that city. For 29 years, Dr. Roxas served the communities around Detroit as a pediatric anesthesiologist in the Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

Even as a practitioner in the United States, Ato remained concerned about his country – particularly its political and economic situation. Soon after President Marcos imposed martial law in 1972, Ato Roxas became a founding member and later Executive Vice-President of the Movement for a Free Philippines – a group that actively supported resistance to the martial law regime. In recognition of his efforts during those difficult years for the opposition, President Corazon C. Aquino appointed Dr. Roxas as Philippine Consul-General for Detroit – a post he served with distinction for the duration of the first Aquino administration.

Notwithstanding a full professional schedule and his hectic political involvement, Roxas found time to raise a family in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe. He and Cristina maintained a house large enough to accommodate their four growing children (daughters Tricia, Mercedita, and Angela, and son Renato Jr.) who are now all professionals in their own right. Four years ago, the entire family – including spouses and grandchildren – made a dream trip to Ato’s land of birth, touring all the well-known resorts and beaches and ending up with a major celebration in the town of Pandi.

With his demise last February 1, 2012, in addition to his family who live mostly in the American Midwest, "Ato"/"Rey" is survived in the Philippines by his brother Attorney Venusiano S. Roxas and his family in Pandi. Attorney Roxas is himself a well appreciated UP graduate.

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The so-called "crab-mentality" is one of the unfortunate traits often associated with being Filipino. This characterizes the tendency of some people to pull others down in order to gain advantage for themselves. Crab mentality often takes the form of simply minimizing or downplaying the accomplishments or favorable features of others – often fellow Filipinos. On the other hand it can sometimes be expressed in a rather vicious form of character assassination that destroys reputations in order to promote self.

In the pharmaceutical industry, the recent assault through advertising by a major Filipino drug firm on a herbal product that took many years of research by the best local pharmaceutical scientists prior to marketing is one such example of the worst kind of crab mentality. The attacks on preparations containing the herbal product "lagundi" range from taunts ("dahon lang yan") to unsubstantiated claims ("they are full of bacteria").

If Filipinos in commerce cannot behave with civility toward each other, one wonders whether the country can ever hope to match foreign competition.

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